Security Systems News - Verizonhttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/taxonomy/term/747
enGood news for security companies: Cable Guy’s customer service ratings fall to new lowshttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/blog/good-news-security-companies-cable-guy-s-customer-service-ratings-fall-new-lows
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:author dc:creator">Tess Nacelewicz</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:datePublished dc:created"><span class="date-display-single" property="schema:datePublished dc:created" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2014-05-21T00:00:00-04:00">05/21/2014</span></div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"> <p>Professional security companies proudly point to the good service they give consumers as an important differentiator between them and their giant cableco and telecom competitors. And a new consumer satisfaction survey suggests they don’t have to worry about losing that edge to the Cable Guy anytime soon—because it shows new dips for Time Warner Cable and Comcast, and AT&amp;T and DIRECTV don’t fare too well, either.</p>
<p>The American Customer Satisfaction Index released its annual measure of the communications industries this week. The ACSI report measures consumer satisfaction in such categories as Internet service providers (ISPs), subscription TV service, fixed-line and wireless telephone service, computer software and cellphones, according to a news release. Ratings are done on a 100-point scale.</p>
<p>“Customer satisfaction is deteriorating for all of the largest pay TV providers. Viewers are much more dissatisfied with cable TV service than fiber optic and satellite service (60 vs. 68). Though both companies drop in customer satisfaction, DIRECTV (-4 percent) and AT&amp;T (-3 percent) are tied for the lead with ACSI scores of 69. Verizon Communications FiOS (68) and DISH Network (67) follow.”</p>
<p>AT&amp;T’s and DIRECTV’s dips in customer satisfaction are of particular note because I just wrote about how AT&amp;T’s $48.5 billion <a href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/att-buy-directv-485b" target="_blank">plan to buy DIRECTV</a> could impact Digital Life—AT&amp;T home security/home automation offering—and the security industry.</p>
<p>Hmmm…a dip in customer satisfaction regarding any part of those companies’ businesses doesn’t seem like a positive—especially if they want to bundle services!</p>
<p>There’s also a $45 billion pending deal for Comcast to buy Time Warner Cable. Both of those companies have home security/home automation offerings but they’re not making customers very happy, at least when it comes to TV and Internet service, according to ACSI.</p>
<p>“Cable giants Comcast and Time Warner Cable have the most dissatisfied customers. Comcast falls 5 percent to 60, while Time Warner registers the biggest loss and plunges 7 percent to 56, its lowest score to date,” the news release said.</p>
<p>The release also has a prepared statement from David VanAmburg, ACSI director: “Comcast and Time Warner assert their proposed merger will not reduce competition because there is little overlap in their service territories. Still, it's a concern whenever two poor-performing service providers combine operations. ACSI data consistently show that mergers in service industries usually result in lower customer satisfaction, at least in the short term. It's hard to see how combining two negatives will be a positive for consumers.”</p>
<p>Customers also aren’t happy with their Internet service from such providers, according to ACSI.</p>
<p>“High prices, slow data transmission and unreliable service drag satisfaction to record lows, as customers have few alternatives beyond the largest Internet service providers. Customer satisfaction with ISPs drops 3.1 percent to 63, the lowest score in the Index, the release said.</p>
<p>“At an ACSI score of 71,Verizon's FiOS Internet service continues to lead the category, surpassing AT&amp;T, CenturyLink and the aggregate of other smaller broadband providers, all at 65,” according to the release. “Cable-company-controlled ISPs languish at the bottom of the rankings again. Cox Communications is the best of these and stays above the industry average despite a 6 percent fall to 64. Customers rate Comcast (-8 percent to 57) and Time Warner Cable (-14 percent to 54) even lower for Internet service than for their TV service. In both industries, the two providers have the weakest customer satisfaction.”</p>
<p>However, customers are happy with their cellphones. That rating is “up for a second straight year, rising 2.6 percent to a new all-time high ACSI score of 78.”</p>
<p>The release said, “Steady growth in the use of smartphones, which have much higher levels of customer satisfaction, helps drive the overall industry gain. However, as data usage increases, costs to access overloaded networks are high, leaving customer satisfaction with wireless service providers stagnant at an ACSI score of 72.”</p>
<p>ACSI found that, “among wireless phone providers, Verizon Wireless separates from the pack after climbing 3 percent to 75. T-Mobile (69), Sprint (68) and AT&amp;T Mobility (68) are tightly grouped behind. As smartphone adoption continues to grow, network demands increase along with costs to the consumer, each contributing to stagnant customer satisfaction.”</p>
<p>Also interesting were the ACSI POTS ratings. “Customer satisfaction with fixed-line telephone service dips 1.4 percent to an ACSI score of 73, but remains the most satisfying of all types of telecommunications. However, the score is due to shrinking landline usage. As more households abandon fixed-line service for cell phones, the customers that remain tend to be the most satisfied,” the release said.</p> </div>
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<span property="dc:title" content="Good news for security companies: Cable Guy’s customer service ratings fall to new lows" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Wed, 21 May 2014 16:37:33 +0000Tess Nacelewicz17494 at http://www.securitysystemsnews.comhttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/blog/good-news-security-companies-cable-guy-s-customer-service-ratings-fall-new-lows#commentsVerizon getting out of home security?http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/blog/verizon-getting-out-home-security
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:author dc:creator">Tess Nacelewicz</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:datePublished dc:created"><span class="date-display-single" property="schema:datePublished dc:created" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2014-02-12T00:00:00-05:00">02/12/2014</span></div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"> <p>It was big news in 2011 when Verizon got into home security/home automation with the <a href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/blog/verizon-securing-nation%E2%80%99s-homes" target="_blank">launch of</a> its Home Monitoring and Control service, which did not have a professional monitoring component. Now there’s an even bigger buzz because it has now apparently discontinued the $9.99 per month DIY product.</p>
<p>Verizon this past October stopped accepting new orders for the product, although it is continuing to let existing FiOS subscribers continue with it, according to the FierceCable website.</p>
<p>I haven’t heard back from Verizon yet, but I have some questions. Does this mean that Verizon is getting out of home security and home automation?</p>
<p>Or perhaps it’s just dropping home security and will offer a new stand-alone home automation product? There’s some precedent for that. I reported last year that Comcast last year was offering Xfinity Home Control, a home management package <a href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/comcast-s-new-offering-home-control-minus-security" target="_blank">for customers who don’t want security</a> but do want home automation. That offering is distinct from Xfinity Home Secure, a product that has professional monitoring.</p>
<p>It’s not clear what Verizon’s latest move portends but FierceCable did report this:</p>
<p>“Verizon officials suggested that the telco may introduce a new home automation product, but wouldn't say if the company is considering adopting a wireless-based approach similar to AT&amp;T Digital Life.”</p>
<p>I’ll continue to follow on this story. Stay posted.<br /> </p> </div>
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<span property="dc:title" content="Verizon getting out of home security?" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Wed, 12 Feb 2014 14:48:27 +0000Tess Nacelewicz17237 at http://www.securitysystemsnews.comhttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/blog/verizon-getting-out-home-security#commentsIs the 2G sunset causing outages?http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/blog/2g-sunset-causing-outages
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:author dc:creator">Leif Kothe</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:datePublished dc:created"><span class="date-display-single" property="schema:datePublished dc:created" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2013-09-27T00:00:00-04:00">09/27/2013</span></div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"> <p>AT&amp;T’s 2012 announcement that it would phase out 2G service left most in the alarm industry, well, unfazed. With wireless technology, such changes come with the territory. Moreover, it’s not the alarm industry but the mobile phone industry that dictates network “sunsets.” As Lou Fiore, Chairman of the Alarm Industry Communications Commission, put it in a recent conversation: “As long as you go cellular, there is no endgame here.”</p>
<p>A few months after the initial announcement, AT&amp;T attached a deadline (Jan 1, 2017) to its 2G sunset. Since that time, the AICC has established a regular line of communication with AT&amp;T, which sends a representative to attend the organization’s quarterly meetings.</p>
<p>AT&amp;T informed AICC that, while interim changes would take place in advance of the 2G sunset, the changes would not affect the alarm industry. AICC members, Fiore said, were “skeptical.”</p>
<p>“We tried to impress upon [AT&amp;T] the fact that our control sets hang on the wall, and if you change the operating parameters of that network, it may not work anymore,” Fiore said. “You can’t ask the homeowner to move the unit around to see if it works.”</p>
<p>Fiore, who is in the process of gathering information regarding possible outages for units tied to AT&amp;T’s 2G network, said that in given locations, customers might still get 2G coverage but that there’s a chance it “won’t be as deep as it was before.”</p>
<p>Fortunately, there are some steps alarm companies can take to mitigate outages. Companies can switch to AT&amp;T's 3G or 4G network by choosing matching hardware from a cellular alarm communicator, or to one of AT&amp;T's competitors (the 3G and 4G networks of Verizon and Sprint are an option, Fiore said). Certain companies may be able to go with a wired network, but this is highly contingent upon business model, Fiore noted.</p>
<p>Still three years from the deadline, AT&amp;T’s 2G sunset promises to be a story with several more chapters. I’ll be watching closely to see what kind of ripple effects it has on the industry.</p> </div>
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<span property="dc:title" content="Is the 2G sunset causing outages?" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Fri, 27 Sep 2013 15:55:41 +0000Leif Kothe16828 at http://www.securitysystemsnews.comhttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/blog/2g-sunset-causing-outages#commentsInflux of telecoms, cablecos into security not alarming, study sayshttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/influx-telecoms-cablecos-security-not-alarming-study-says
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<div class="field-item even">According to IMS Research, the new players will help boost the home penetration rate very rapidly over the new few years</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:datePublished dc:date"><span class="date-display-single" property="schema:datePublished dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2013-06-07T00:00:00-04:00">06/07/2013</span></div>
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<div class="field-item even" rel="schema:author dc:creator">Tess Nacelewicz</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"> <p>AUSTIN, Texas—The penetration rate for U.S. residential intrusion alarm products will increase by 5 percent to 8 percent during the next three years, aided by the entrance of the new telecom and cableco players in the market, according to a recent study by IMS Research, now part of IHS.</p>
<p>Adi Pavlovic, security and fire analyst for IHS, told <em>Security Systems News</em> that it’s too early to tell how much the new players already have increased the penetration rate, which has been stalled at about 20 percent for years. Telecoms and cablecos have just entered the market in the past couple of years, so they are very new, he noted. “I would say it’s still under 1 percent,” he said.</p>
<p>However, Pavlovic predicted, “It’s going to pick up really quickly once they do get established. … They all have goals to just spread out across the whole nation and once they do that then they’re making that offer to 100 percent of their client base, and that’s when we’re going to see the penetration rate pick up.”</p>
<p>A sudden influx of players and increased competition is detrimental for an industry in most cases. However, the traditional security industry is unique in embracing the plethora of new competitors entering the business, according to the new study, “The World Market for Intruder Alarms.”</p>
<p>Pavlovic said the industry believes that the entrance of telecoms and cablecos means “they’re going to increase the penetration rate and make [security] a lot more common in the home than it is right now.”</p>
<p>That’s because the recent market entrants are partnering with established security suppliers to offer complete home security product offerings and are increasing market awareness of home management systems, which combine traditional home security with innovative home automation technology, according to the study.</p>
<p>The report notes, “While home automation features are driving the penetration of integrated home management systems, the core functionality consists of a basic intrusion system.”</p>
<p>Pavlovic said the telecoms and cablecos are doing everything from running television ads to reaching out directly to their own customers to market home security/home automation.</p>
<p> “Just increasing the awareness and the education of that is going to help the traditional guys as well,” he said. “People will say, ‘Wow, I’m curious about that,’ and they might do a little research and compare the traditional guys” to the telecoms and cablecos who “don’t always have the most favorable customer reports.”</p>
<p>Telecommunication companies like <a href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/att-launches-digital-life-15-new-markets" target="_blank">AT&amp;T</a> and <a href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/blog/time-warner-about-wrap-home-security-rollout" target="_blank">Time Warner</a> are among a growing list of companies entering the market. The list also includes <a href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/comcast-we-re-not-just-cable-company-anymore" target="_blank">Comcast</a>, <a href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/cox-expanding-its-home-security-home-automation-reach" target="_blank">Cox Communications</a>, <a href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/blog/verizon-securing-nation%E2%80%99s-homes" target="_blank">Verizon</a> and <a href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/lowe-s-selling-iris-verizon-wireless-stores" target="_blank">Lowe’s</a>.</p>
<p>“Leveraging their existing client base, the telecoms and cablecos are offering home management systems in order to increase their average revenue per user (ARPU),” according to the report from England-based IMS, whose U.S. headquarters is here.</p>
<p>“Combining these newer offerings in addition to pre-existing services such as cable, Internet and telephone is becoming an attractive and cost-effective way to entice end users, thus driving the uptake of security products,” according to the report. It noted that some new entrants have partnered with existing professional monitoring companies, while some have decided to launch their own monitoring stations.</p>
<p>Pavlovic said the penetration increase of as much as 8 percent in the next several years will be partly due to increased business for traditional companies, but largely due to the telecoms and cablecos.</p>
<p>“It’s mostly going to be them, doing the bundles, the cable, the Internet, the phone and now home security,” he told SSN. “Once they start making that offer to the millions of customers they have, [even] a small percentage of them making that switch to that bundle, that’s going to mean big things to the intruder alarm industry.”</p>
<p>How will the fact that some of the new players offer a self-monitored home security product impact the industry?</p>
<p>“It’s a niche market and most likely will stay niche for now,” Pavlovic said. He said it’s assumed that the market will grow, but it’s too early to tell how much of a threat such products could pose to professional monitoring companies.</p>
<p>He noted that the study is a global one. The intrusion alarm market in Europe is slow because of the poor economy, but “exciting stuff is happening within the U.S.,” Pavlovic said.</p>
<p>“The economy is starting to recover, and construction is doing better so there are going to be a lot more opportunities for intruder alarms, and now the game is changing with the telecoms and the self-monitoring picking up steam,” Pavlovic said. “It should be an interesting next couple of years and it will definitely change the traditional landscape.”</p> </div>
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<span property="dc:title" content="Influx of telecoms, cablecos into security not alarming, study says" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Fri, 07 Jun 2013 17:09:30 +0000Tess Nacelewicz16500 at http://www.securitysystemsnews.comhttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/influx-telecoms-cablecos-security-not-alarming-study-says#commentsFireproofing the cloudhttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/fireproofing-cloud
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<div class="field-item even">What’s the fire survivability of the data center where your cloud provider retains your company’s information?</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:datePublished dc:date"><span class="date-display-single" property="schema:datePublished dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2013-04-24T00:00:00-04:00">04/24/2013</span></div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"> <p>“Is my cloud provider secure?” That’s a question security integrators often pose as they move their data off site to the cloud. But another important question they also might want to ask of cloud providers is: “Does the server farm where you’re storing my valuable data have optimal fire protection?”</p>
<p>As more and more businesses turn to cloud storage, such server farms, also known as data centers, are growing, not only in number but also in size. In fact, some centers cover an area more easily measured in acreage than square feet, according to Mike Ramey, executive VP of Alarm Tech Solutions. That Severn, Md.-based <a href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/alarm-tech-makes-synergetic-acquisition">life safety solutions company</a> serves the District of Columbia, as well as Maryland and Virginia.</p>
<p>Ramey said that because of their size and the fact that they store the key data of so many businesses, the data centers need “to meet a higher standard of survivability” when it comes to fire.</p>
<p>“They can’t be down, because not only do they have your information, but they have hundreds of companies’ information on their same server,” Ramey told Security Systems News.</p>
<p>Alarm Tech is among the Gamewell-FCI by Honeywell engineered systems distributors that are seeing an increasing demand from the data center market for specialty fire detection—aspiration, gas and flame detection products, according to Ramey and Gamewell-FCI.</p>
<p>Don’t look for the cloud in the skies—it’s actually here on earth and subject to such risks as fire. End users access cloud-based applications through a network, with their business software and data stored on servers at a remote location.</p>
<p>“In the cloud environment, the cloud is theoretical. The cloud actually sits on the ground somewhere and it’s in a building,” Ramey said.</p>
<p>He made an analogy between businesses storing their information in the cloud at large data centers—and the associated fire risks—to homeowners or apartment dwellers renting storage containers to keep things they don’t have room for in their homes.</p>
<p>“If I don’t have the capacity to store all my holiday ornaments or my past financial records or my summer clothes or whatever,” Ramey said, “I’m going to go to a large facility and rent a small space within that large facility to keep my stuff.”</p>
<p>However, he continued, “that large facility has to protect your stuff. So they have to have a security mechanism in place, and they have to have fire suppression in place, and they have to create a storage configuration so that if you happen to have a situation in your storage space that causes a fire then it doesn’t have a catastrophic effect on everybody. It’s kind of a similar situation.”</p>
<p>One source of fire risk at large data centers is their power source. The centers rely on fuel-fed generators for power, which Ramey said are housed in rooms so big you could drive a tractor-trailer through them.</p>
<p>To protect areas where fuel could be ignited, data centers increasingly need advanced flame detection technology that is more typically associated with industrial facilities, Ramey said.</p>
<p>“Because they are designed specifically for the support of a data center, the redundant backups are larger, the fuel-driven generator numbers are larger in quantity and obviously the fuel-storage capacity is higher,” he said.</p>
<p>And because even a very small fire at a data center could cause huge disruptions to myriad businesses, many centers also require aspiration smoke detection to provide early indication of smoke, Ramey said.</p>
<p>“It gives the very early warning activity, allowing them to address a problem before it becomes a crisis,” he said. “They can sense a condition much earlier than waiting for it to simply become an activation of a suppression system, which they don’t want.”</p>
<p>Aspiration smoke detection technology works by continuously pulling in air samples through a pipe network to instantly detect even a trace of smoke.</p>
<p>But the increasing size of the data centers can lead to smoke detection challenges because the equipment-filled facilities generate so much heat they need to employ energy-saving strategies that involve directed air movement.</p>
<p>That is why the National Fire Protection Association’s Fire Protection Research Foundation is doing a study on how detection systems work in the high air flow environments of data centers and telecommunications centers, according to Kathleen Almand, executive director of the Quincy, Mass.-based foundation.</p>
<p>The first phase of the study has been completed and the goal is to complete the entire study by this summer, she said.</p>
<p>She said data centers are “huge heat generators” that require a lot of air conditioning and other cooling strategies.</p>
<p>“There are some new energy-saving strategies for those facilities that involve air movement in certain ways, directed air movement so that it goes around this big energy-generating data center,” Almand said. “So, the question is, ‘How does a detection system perform in that environment with all that wind blowing around?’ Because if a fire starts over here—and I’m being very simplistic here—and the wind blows it away from the detector, will the detector perform? And of course in those environments, it’s critical to have early detection because you’re trying to minimize damage to the data center, which of course is a very important communications link for a lot of people.”</p>
<p>Sponsors of the project, “Detection Design Modeling Tools in a High Air Flow Environment,” include Simplex-Grinnell, Honeywell, Kidde-Fenwal, which is part of UTC Climate Controls &amp; Security, Verizon and FM Global, a commercial property insurer.</p>
<p>Almand said the study “involves modeling of the detector performance. And we’re actually doing some full-scale testing at FM Global’s research center [in West Glocester, R.I.]. It won’t be fire testing but there will be lots of air blowing around and looking at the performance of the detector and probably introducing some smoke.”</p>
<p>Two NFPA standards govern fire protection requirements in data centers. They are NFPA 75, titled “Protection of Information Technology Equipment,” and NFPA 76, “Fire Protection of Telecommunications Facilities.”</p>
<p>However, Almand said, “right now, because we don’t really understand the performance of detection systems very well, there are very conservative requirements in [the standards].” For example, she said, detectors are required “all over the place.”</p>
<p>But the study, she said, “is designed to give someone who is designing a fire protection system the information they need to install these where they need to be.”</p>
<p>Almand said, “Our goal is to have this project finished this summer because [NFPA 75 and NFPA 76] are in cycle for revision.”</p>
<p>A key role of the research foundation is to provide data to the NFPA’s codes and standards committees “so they can make better-informed decisions,” Almand said.</p>
<p>In addition to having optimal fire protection systems in data centers, it’s also key that the systems are properly inspected, tested and maintained on a regular basis, according to Arnie Miesch, alarm system program manager for Intertek testing laboratories, and Nick Scolaro, Intertek senior auditor and senior technical leader.</p>
<p>London-based Intertek, a third-party testing and certification company, has its American headquarters in Arlington Heights, Ill.</p>
<p>“One of the things you need to keep in mind is that the inspection, testing and maintenance on these systems is as crucial if not more crucial than the actual installation,” Miesch told SSN.</p>
<p>Scolaro said, “More and more jurisdictions should consider having third-party verification people like us, Intertek, nationally recognized testing laboratories, to come in and be that extra set of eyes to verify the companies are doing the proper things.”</p>
<p>He explained that engineering staff associated with most fire departments “do a fantastic job of verifying at the time of plan review, building construction, and the initial installation overview and testing, when the system is new.”</p>
<p>However, Scolaro said, as years go by, “you have a different set of individuals in the fire department and local jurisdictional offices” who typically aren’t inspection specialists and weren’t involved with initial installation, so the building is new to them. Their inspection, “at the end of the day, is not going to be as thorough as the original,” he said.</p>
<p>By contrast, Scolaro said, “we would come in and we would almost be duplicating the original to verify it. If we're going to put our name on it, if Intertek is going to have a certificate issued, we're going to assure that it's functional and meets the requirements of the appropriate standard for the application.”</p> </div>
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<span property="dc:title" content="Fireproofing the cloud" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Wed, 24 Apr 2013 15:44:50 +0000Leif Kothe16334 at http://www.securitysystemsnews.comhttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/fireproofing-cloud#commentsADT targeted over early termination fees, unilateral price increaseshttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/adt-targeted-over-early-termination-fees-unilateral-price-increases
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<div class="field-item even">A federal class-action lawsuit calls the practices &#039;deceptive and unlawful&#039;</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:datePublished dc:date"><span class="date-display-single" property="schema:datePublished dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2013-03-20T00:00:00-04:00">03/20/2013</span></div>
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<div class="field-item even" rel="schema:author dc:creator">Tess Nacelewicz</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"> <p>WALNUT CREEK, Calif.—It’s standard practice for security companies to charge customers early termination fees, but now a federal class-action lawsuit is targeting ADT for the penalties it imposes for early termination and also its unilateral price increases on monitoring contracts. The practices violate federal and state consumer protection laws, the lawsuit contends.</p>
<p>“Just because something is a long-standing practice doesn’t mean that it’s legal,” L. Timothy Fisher, one of the attorneys representing ADT customers in the lawsuit, told Security Systems News. “That’s why we brought the case—we think it’s illegal.”</p>
<p>He said his law firm, Bursor &amp; Fisher, which is based here, brought similar legal challenges against cellphone companies over their standard practice of using early termination fees. “We had settlements with those companies, including a $21 million settlement with Verizon, and we got a ruling that Sprint’s early termination fee here in California was illegal,” he said.</p>
<p>Fisher said cellphone providers have changed their practices as a result of that litigation. “In my cellphone cases, that industry has reformed itself and now has gone from a flat early termination fee to a prorated early termination fee that declines over time,” he said.</p>
<p>Two ADT customers—Emily Hogan of California and Pamela Rubeo of Illinois—are the lead plaintiffs in the lawsuit against ADT, filed in U.S. District Court in the Central District of California late in 2012. The termination fees and unilateral price increases are a violation of the federal Truth in Lending Act and also consumer protection laws in California and Illinois, the lawsuit asserts.</p>
<p>It states that there are at least 100 people who have been similarly impacted by ADT’s practices, which the lawsuit calls “deceptive and unlawful.” But Fisher predicts many more will end up being part of the lawsuit.</p>
<p>“We think it’s probably vastly more than that because the class includes anybody nationwide who paid the early termination fee,” Fisher said. “We don’t know the exact number but we think it’s going to be a substantial number of people.”</p>
<p>As of mid-March, ADT had not filed a response to the complaint in court. Sarah Cohn, director of media relations for the Boca Raton, Fla.-based The ADT Corp., declined to discuss the case, citing the company’s policy of not commenting on pending litigation.</p>
<p>But Cohn noted that “termination fees are common in the industry when a company absorbs the upfront cost of the installation.”</p>
<p>Les Gold, an attorney who specializes in the security industry and is a partner at Mitchell Silberberg &amp; Knupp, a law firm with offices in Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C., said he couldn’t comment directly about the lawsuit because he hadn’t read it in detail.</p>
<p>But speaking generally about termination fees, Gold told SSN, “on the face of it there is probably nothing wrong with an early termination fee. … Normally one would be entitled to a loss of profit and so frequently they just determine what a loss of profit is and it’s considered an early termination fee.”</p>
<p>But the lawsuit called early termination fees “the linchpin of ADT's ‘never let them go’ strategy” and claims they are used “simply as an anti-competitive device and not to compensate ADT for any true costs” it incurs when a customer ends a contract prematurely.</p>
<p>Also, the lawsuit says, “the penalty is also extracted from customers who contracted with ADT to simply monitor a system that was previously installed, requiring no equipment to be installed and resulting in a windfall to ADT upon termination. By charging the early termination fee, ADT gets paid for years of monitoring without doing any monitoring to earn those fees.”</p>
<p>Also, when customers remain under contact, ADT unilaterally increases their rates without adequate prior notice or properly informing customers or getting their consent, the lawsuit contends. “ADT bases its ‘right’ to do so on small-print boilerplate in the contract that is not signed or highlighted for the customer in any way and that simply declares ADT’s right to increase fees unilaterally,” the lawsuit asserts.</p>
<p>It says that Hogan, the California plaintiff, signed a contract with ADT in July 2008 and ADT increased her rate in August 2011 without prior notice and again in March 2012.</p>
<p>“Emily Hogan’s agreement requires notification of any rate increase. The contract provides that Ms. Hogan would have the right to challenge, in writing, any rate increase within 30 days of notice of the increase. The contract further provides that ADT may then agree to waive the increase. However, if ADT does not do so, Ms. Hogan would have to provide 30 days’ notice of termination,” the lawsuit states. “This provision provides another disguised penalty fee for ADT. If ADT does not waive its increased fee, a customer would be charged that fee for at least another month or two before ADT would allow them to terminate.”</p>
<p>Rubeo, the plaintiff from Illinois, signed a contract with ADT in March 2011, a few months before her home was burglarized in September 2011, even though her alarm was activated that morning, the lawsuit says.</p>
<p>It says ADT told her that the alarm she had bought from an authorized ADT dealer “was obsolete and was not being sold by ADT.”</p>
<p>“Because Rubeo had not realized that the alarm they purchased could so easily be bypassed, she elected to terminate her relationship with ADT and its authorized dealer,” the lawsuit states. She provided notice of the cancellation in writing and was told by ADT she wouldn’t be charged a penalty, according to the lawsuit.</p>
<p>However, it says that Rubeo “was subsequently billed $743.19 for early termination of her contract. After having been burglarized and lost thousands of dollars’ worth of possessions, she was now being penalized by the very company that was supposed to protect her home in the first place.” Worried about her credit rating, she ended up paying a reduced amount that ADT and the dealer agreed to accept, the lawsuit says.</p>
<p>This isn’t the first time ADT has been sued over such fees, according to Jana Eisinger, another attorney in the case. A similar case previously was brought in California, she said.</p>
<p>"The Contra Costa [County] District Attorney’s Office filed a suit against ADT in 2008 which made the same allegations,” Eisinger said.</p>
<p>That case was settled, but California residents who received restitution as the result of that settlement may still be entitled to recovery under this lawsuit, according to Fisher and Eisinger.</p>
<p>“It’s our desire [for] anybody who has paid this illegal fee to have them made whole, to get them justice,” Fisher said.</p>
<p>He said the specific amount of damages sought has yet to be determined. “That’s something that we will ascertain by discovery and consultation with the expert witnesses we retain who help us determine the actual amount that’s been collected unlawfully from our clients and class members,” Fisher said. “But we suspect it’s going to be a substantial amount of money.”</p> </div>
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<span property="dc:title" content="ADT targeted over early termination fees, unilateral price increases" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Wed, 20 Mar 2013 16:59:47 +0000Leif Kothe16226 at http://www.securitysystemsnews.comhttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/adt-targeted-over-early-termination-fees-unilateral-price-increases#commentsProprietary ‘smart home’ systems losing ground to open standardshttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/proprietary-smart-home-systems-losing-ground-open-standards
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:datePublished dc:date"><span class="date-display-single" property="schema:datePublished dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2013-03-06T00:00:00-05:00">03/06/2013</span></div>
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<div class="field-item even" rel="schema:author dc:creator">Rich Miller</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"> <p>Annual shipments of proprietary wireless technologies for home automation are expected to double by 2017, but proportionately their deployment in “smart homes” will be cut in half as service providers including ADT and AT&amp;T drive a move toward open standards, according to a new report by IMS Research. </p>
<p>IMS projects that shipments of proprietary wireless technologies will grow from less than 3 million nodes in 2012 to 6 million in 2017, primarily due to high-end automation suppliers maintaining closed systems and smart-home startups deploying those technologies to keep certification costs down. A node is any device that serves as a connection point for data transmissions.</p>
<p>Despite the growth, the proportion of smart homes employing proprietary wireless systems is expected to halve in the next five years, falling to 7 percent in 2017. IMS said this is indicative of a move toward open standards for the majority of smart-home providers, particularly in high-growth market segments such as managed home control. Managed home-control systems enable consumers to access status alerts and control thermostats and lighting via online portals or smartphone apps.</p>
<p>“Open standards will be dominant within the growing market for managed home-control solutions, particularly as service providers such as ISPs or security companies become more entrenched,” said Lisa Arrowsmith, associate director of connectivity at IHS Inc., the parent company of IMS Research.</p>
<p>Open standards offer a wide range of interoperable devices and can be integrated easily in the system design phase, IMS said. Companies including ADT and Verizon have opted for Z-Wave, while Comcast and AT&amp;T have chosen ZigBee.</p>
<p>Despite the overall trend toward open standards, proprietary wireless technologies are projected to remain a strong choice in the high-end home automation market, IMS market analyst Elizabeth Mead told Security Systems News.</p>
<p>“These high-end solutions often comprise static, whole-home systems that often come at a higher cost,” she said. “Within these systems, certain home security features can play a part, such as motion sensors or magnetic contacts. [They are] sometimes included in the system to provide functions other than actual security—for example, assessing whether a window is open and adjusting the HVAC controls accordingly.”</p>
<p>Proprietary wireless technologies are also gaining traction among home automation startups, because developing devices with proprietary technologies allows a company to avoid the certification costs associated with using open standards, the IMS report stated.</p>
<p>In the long run, however, many companies deploying managed home-control services “want to move away from promoting or supporting the use of devices from specific manufacturers,” Arrowsmith said, instead preferring “to promote a specific open technology which will allow consumers to add a variety of smart-home devices from multiple manufacturers.”</p>
<p>Mead said security integrators and installers can take advantage of growth in the smart-home market by offering systems covering a range of applications, including lighting, HVAC control and home monitoring.</p>
<p>“Many consumers are concerned about being unable to pair devices and setting up their home network,” she said. “Therefore, simple usable devices with minimal consumer input will be strong in this market. Offering remote monitoring is also key … [as is determining] appropriate business models relating to device costs and subscription charges.”</p> </div>
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<span property="dc:title" content="Proprietary ‘smart home’ systems losing ground to open standards" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Wed, 06 Mar 2013 15:59:59 +0000Leif Kothe16181 at http://www.securitysystemsnews.comhttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/proprietary-smart-home-systems-losing-ground-open-standards#commentsSW24's Fusion Centre a lifeline during Sandyhttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/sw24-s-fusion-centre-lifeline-during-sandy
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<div class="field-item even">N.J. central station doubles as emergency command post for police, officials</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:datePublished dc:date"><span class="date-display-single" property="schema:datePublished dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2012-11-07T00:00:00-05:00">11/07/2012</span></div>
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<div class="field-item even" rel="schema:author dc:creator">Rich Miller</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"> <p>NEW YORK—With Hurricane Sandy making landfall and forecasters’ worst fears coming true, Gene Dellaglio drove out into the night on Oct. 29 to check on SecureWatch 24’s new Fusion Centre in Moonachie, N.J. As trees fell and the power grid faltered, he arrived at the central station and prepared for the worst.</p>
<p>“I got there just before the storm hit,” said Dellaglio, chief technology officer for SW24, a Manhattan-based security company that specializes in property surveillance and facilities management. “I figured we could get some flooding but I wasn’t really sure, so I moved all of the vehicles to high ground. We have generators and backup batteries, but the facility was going to be empty, so I shut everything off—I disabled everything. We weren’t sure what to expect.”</p>
<p>Later that night a berm on the Hackensack River was topped by a tidal surge, flooding Moonachie and the neighboring boroughs of Little Ferry and Carlstadt with up to 5 feet of water. Hundreds of homes and businesses were inundated, thousands of residents were displaced and the area was left in the dark. Some residents had to be rescued from their rooftops.</p>
<p>The next morning Dellaglio headed back to Moonachie, aware of news reports about the berm and “devastation everywhere.” But when he reached the Fusion Centre, which is scheduled to go on line Dec. 1, a surprise awaited him.</p>
<p>“I get inside the building and we’re bone-dry,” Dellaglio told Security Systems News. “Not a drop of water—25,000 square feet, a $4 million investment, bone-dry.”</p>
<p>After turning on the generators, lights and other equipment in the building, SW24 moved its semi-critical servers from a co-location facility in Manhattan to Moonachie. Critical systems had been moved out of the region before the storm, said Jay Stuck, vice president of sales and chief marketing officer for SW24.</p>
<p>“What we did was back up all of our servers in Texas,” Stuck said. “All essential systems were backed up there. We did lose a couple of trucks in our [Moonachie] parking lot, at least three vehicles.”</p>
<p>As the Fusion Centre was being brought up to speed, reports started to mount about the extent of the damage in the surrounding area. Municipal infrastructure and communications were being affected, putting the lives of residents, local officials and emergency responders at risk.</p>
<p>“Across the street from us at the DPW [Department of Public Works], I’m talking to the superintendent for the town and she says they barely escaped from there with their lives,” Dellaglio said. “Water flooded up to chest level in about 15 seconds in the room they were in. They were standing in 5 feet of water. They were breaking windows to get out of there.”</p>
<p>With the Fusion Centre operational at a time when many other facilities were not, Dellaglio said the building quickly took on a new role: a command post in a time of crisis, a “nexus” to bridge the gap between public and private entities.</p>
<p>“I reached out to [local officials] and said, ‘We’ve got this new facility, we’re four weeks away from launch, I’ve got power here, I’ve got everything you need,’” he said. “‘You guys move in and we’ll host you.'"</p>
<p>Within hours the Moonachie Police Department was operating from the Fusion Centre, followed by the borough clerk and other local administrators. Although the facility was on generator power for 36 hours, Internet connectivity was never lost. Dellaglio said Verizon Wireless, through its Business Solution Alliance program, stepped up to provide cellphone service and more than 50 devices—handsets, smartphones and Blackberrys—to assist municipal and emergency personnel.</p>
<p>“[Verizon] comes in, we set up a charging station, the guys light it up, and Moonachie PD is up and running,” he said. “They’re taking 911 calls here and all of the calls for town hall right out of our Fusion Centre. We’re tracking the storm up on the big screen, we’re looking at traffic forecasts. … All of this time, we’re monitoring our own systems.”</p>
<p>State officials also took advantage of the Fusion Centre’s operational status, with Gov. Chris Christie touring the facility and holding a news conference in the parking lot on Nov. 1, Stuck said.</p>
<p>For municipal employees working out of the Fusion Centre while waiting for their power to be restored at home, there were also hot showers, locker rooms and clean towels. All of it was offered at no charge, Dellaglio said, and SW24 was happy to do it.</p>
<p>“Most people walked in here and couldn’t believe that, No. 1, this place existed, and No. 2, it was in their backyard,” he said. “We see it as our civic duty to be able to help out because we have this facility. …We’re grateful we can do it.”</p>
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<p><em>Above Photo</em>: Des Smyth, left, president of SecureWatch 24, greets New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Nov. 1 at SW24's Fusion Centre in Moonachie, N.J. Christie met with first responders and held a news conference at the facility in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.</p> </div>
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<span property="dc:title" content="SW24&#039;s Fusion Centre a lifeline during Sandy" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Wed, 07 Nov 2012 19:09:26 +0000Leif Kothe15818 at http://www.securitysystemsnews.comhttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/sw24-s-fusion-centre-lifeline-during-sandy#comments‘Make sure mobile is part of the solution you offer’http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/make-sure-mobile-part-solution-you-offer
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<div class="field-item even">Industry experts say mobile apps must be part of a successful security business today</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:datePublished dc:date"><span class="date-display-single" property="schema:datePublished dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2012-09-07T00:00:00-04:00">09/07/2012</span></div>
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<div class="field-item even" rel="schema:author dc:creator">Tess Nacelewicz</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"> <p>A smart revolution quietly occurred this year—one that’s dramatically changing the security industry.</p>
<p>As of February, a Nielsen report showed, about half of all Americans with mobile phones—49.7 percent—now own smartphones. And the number of smartphone owners is rapidly growing. Nielsen said that only 36 percent of mobile subscribers owned smartphones last year, and that more than two-thirds of those who bought a mobile device in a three-month period earlier this year chose a smartphone.</p>
<p>And smartphones, because they enable the use of mobile apps, are changing the profile of the residential security customer, said Jay Kenny, VP of marketing for Alarm.com, an interactive services technology provider based in Vienna, Va.</p>
<p>“There’s a new expectation among people who are active smartphone users. They expect to have an app [for everything] and they’re accustomed to always-on service. They don’t care if it’s 2 in the morning—they can always access email or do what they need to do,” he said. “That’s the same expectation that’s being applied to other services that they’re purchasing today, and that expectation is being applied to security systems.”</p>
<p>In this changing landscape, Kenny has a simple message for security alarm dealers: “Make sure mobile is part of the solution you offer.” Not only are mobile apps something that customers demand, but such interactive services also are an important selling tool and drive down attrition rates, he said.</p>
<p>Kenny discussed mobile apps at a seminar at ESX in June titled “Mobile Apps for Security &amp; More,” and also in a subsequent interview with <em>Security Systems News</em>. SSN also talked to three security companies—one a traditional alarm company, one a summer-sales-model company, and one that combines the two sales approaches—which all agreed that mobile apps must be part of a successful security business today.</p>
<p>“I think companies that do not pay attention to interactive services will not be here three to five years from now,” said John Loud, president of the Georgia Electronic Life Safety and Security Association and owner of Loud Security, a traditional-model regional alarm company based in Kennesaw, Ga.</p>
<p>In the past, security was solely about intrusion prevention. But now, interactive services have made it much more.<br /> <br />It still starts with security, Kenny said. “There’s an arm and disarm,” he said, “but then there’s a general awareness. I can check at any time to see if I left a door open or what’s going on at home. I get alerts, I get information back when my kids get home or somebody opens the door, I can view a live video feed if I get a video alert, I can turn my lights on and off, and I can adjust my thermostat right from the phone. Locks are a huge interest … the ability to actually turn the deadbolt from your phone.”</p>
<p>“What this is doing,” Kenny continued, “is starting to change the perception of what security is. So instead of being solely about intrusion and intrusion prevention, it’s now about: I feel more secure that somebody got home on time, I feel more secure because I know what’s going on in my home. And then we’re extending it to these mission-critical services in home energy management. And the mobile device is the thing that’s driving that adoption, and driving the interest in using these additional services.”</p>
<p>Loud Security introduced interactive services in the middle of last summer, and Loud said the addition has made a dramatic difference in just a year.</p>
<p>“It’s very interesting,” he said, “as we look at our average monthly recurring revenues versus a year ago, we’re up 60 to 70 percent from last year.” Some of that he attributes to some new marketing efforts. However, he said, “some of it is absolutely related to the interactive services.”</p>
<p>Loud said that since mid-2011, “we have a much higher penetration of people using cellular or Internet communication devices instead of landlines. So, once they go to that opportunity, it creates the interest to discuss interactive services. And we really feel that interactive services begins a whole different relationship between the subscriber and their alarm system.”</p>
<p>Kenny said that data from Alarm.com, which launched its first mobile app in 2009, “shows that people who are using mobile devices are more engaged with the system. They stay longer, they value it more and it becomes more part of their life.”</p>
<p>Patrick Egan, president and owner of Select Security, a Lancaster, Pa.-based traditional alarm company that added a door-knocking program to its business two years ago, also said his company is embracing the “interactive customer.”</p>
<p>“Think of that residential customer five years ago. He didn’t get anything from us but a bill,” Egan said. “OK, maybe he got a newsletter, we might have mailed a newsletter out, but we didn’t hear from him unless there was service call.”</p>
<p>Select Security began offering interactive services in 2010, starting with Honeywell’s Total Connect. Now, Egan said, customers are “getting an alert from Select Security every day saying [for example], ‘System armed, system disarmed,’ and they go to our website. So we’re driving traffic to our website, where we’re increasing special offers.”</p>
<p>He said Select Security expects to add about 2,000 new systems this year, and all are interactive. “This year, 100 percent of our residential systems are on cellular and all with apps, every one,” Egan said.</p>
<p>At Orem, Utah-based Pinnacle Security, a summer sales company that has a strong relationship with Alarm.com, Kevin Woodworth, VP of installations, said that five years ago, “we had a 34 percent take rate on interactive services. That means the rest were traditional landline services.”</p>
<p>Today, he said, “we’re just over 90 percent [take rate on interactive services]. It’s been huge for Pinnacle.”</p>
<p>He said interactive services and mobile apps are great sales and closing tools. “The salespeople are more able to position it as much more than intrusion, and that really seems to resonate with customers as well. They really expect more than just intrusion today,” Woodworth said.</p>
<p>He said that “rather than walking up and selling traditional security, [sales reps] are really selling peace of mind and staying in touch outside the home.”</p>
<p>Pinnacle’s existing customers also are calling to add interactive services when they switch to cellphones as landlines disappear, Woodworth said.</p>
<p>Egan and Loud said their companies are actively targeting their legacy customers to offer them interactive services.</p>
<p>“I have thousands of legacy customers on non-interactive telephone line panels. They’ve got to go. This is not an option [as landlines are being phased out],” Egan said. “We are calling aggressively and making appointments and if we can get an email address we’re emailing.”</p>
<p>A recent email effort resulted in four upgrades in a day, he said. And Egan said that while Select Security typically charges its legacy customers about $25 a month, those same customers are now willing to pay $50 a month for the new interactive services, because they’re saving money giving up their landlines. “We’re just moving the money from Verizon, Comcast and Cox to us,” Egan said.</p>
<p>Loud said some of his customers learned about interactive services from commercials that the telecoms and cablecos—recent entrants to the security market—are running, but contacted Loud Security to get the services from their local provider. “I guess it comes back to owning your local market,” he said.</p>
<p>Also, Loud said, his company just printed 10,000 postcards it’s planning to send out to long-term customers to tell them about the new services and say, “You’re eligible for an upgrade. Give us a call, let us come see you.”</p>
<p>Egan said, “Interactive services is where we’re headed. If you’re not offering it, you’re behind the eight ball. I pity the guy today who is out selling a residential alarm and, God forbid, hardwiring it, and then connecting it on a phone line. That is way, way yesterday.”</p> </div>
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<span property="dc:title" content="‘Make sure mobile is part of the solution you offer’" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Fri, 07 Sep 2012 18:36:00 +0000Rich Miller15650 at http://www.securitysystemsnews.comhttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/make-sure-mobile-part-solution-you-offer#commentsMassachusetts installers battle Comcast, Verizon in courthttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/massachusetts-installers-battle-comcast-verizon-court
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<div class="field-item even">Lawsuit filed by installers’ group claims the cableco and telecom are endangering the public by not being licensed for the security alarm work they do in the state</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:datePublished dc:date"><span class="date-display-single" property="schema:datePublished dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2012-08-29T00:00:00-04:00">08/29/2012</span></div>
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<div class="field-item even" rel="schema:author dc:creator">Tess Nacelewicz</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"> <p>SHARON, Mass.—A Massachusetts security systems installers’ group has taken Comcast and Verizon to court, charging the cableco and telecom lack the required state licenses to do security alarm-related work in Massachusetts.</p>
<p>The Massachusetts Systems Contractors Association (MSCA), a trade association based here, is asking a judge to find the two new security industry entrants are violating state law and ban them from selling, installing and monitoring security systems in the state. The MSCA contends Comcast and Verizon are endangering the public by having unlicensed personnel do security systems work, and also infringing on the rights of the group’s members.</p>
<p>The MSCA says all its members who do security systems work have a state electrical license, have passed a criminal background check and work for companies that are licensed by the Department of Public Safety. Comcast and Verizon don’t meet such licensing requirements in their security systems work, the group alleges.</p>
<p>However, Comcast and Verizon want the judge to throw out the lawsuit—first filed in state court this summer but then transferred to U.S. District Court in Boston—saying it doesn’t apply to them for a variety of reasons.</p>
<p>Comcast in court documents says it’s exempt from the licensure laws that MSCA cites governing electrical security systems because its professionally-monitored Xfinity Home offering uses IP technology and wireless connections to security sensors, “and does not involve any electrical installation whatsoever.” Comcast released its offering in Houston in 2010 and has been rapidly expanding to other markets nationwide since then.</p>
<p>And Verizon says its Home Monitoring and Control service is a do-it-yourself system, and customers, not the company, are responsible for installing the easy, plug-in equipment. The offering, launched nationwide in 2011, is not professionally monitored and Verizon in the lawsuit calls it “a lifestyle service,” stressing that “HMC is not a security or alarm system.”</p>
<p>Additionally, both Verizon and Comcast assert that the MSCA has no authority to bring a lawsuit against them over licensing, because only the state and municipalities have the authority to enforce the licensing laws.</p>
<p>In fact, it turns out that at least two municipal wiring inspectors have “issued cease-and-desist orders to Comcast relating to their security work,” according to the lawsuit.</p>
<p>Those citations were slated to be heard by the Massachusetts Board of State Examiners of Electricians on Monday of this week. But the hearing on that administrative matter has been continued to a later date, possibly early in September, David Fine, an attorney representing the MSCA, told <em>Security Systems News</em>.</p>
<p>Because the issues before the board are related to those raised in the lawsuit, the MSCA, Comcast and Verizon have all agreed to put the lawsuit on hold until the board issues a decision on the citations and any appeal of that decision is fully resolved.</p>
<p>Fine said that his client declined to discuss the merits of the case with SSN because it is pending. Philadelphia-based Comcast also told SSN it has a policy of not commenting on pending litigation. Attorneys for Verizon, which is based in Basking Ridge, N.J., did not respond to a request for comment before SSN’s deadline.</p>
<p>In its lawsuit, the MSCA claims that “the performance of security systems work by Comcast and Verizon has caused and will continue to cause irreparable harm to MSCA members and to the public, due to the life safety and security concerns associated with this work. The Legislature has enacted multiple licensure requirements to ensure that those performing this work are educated, competent and trustworthy. In bypassing all of these legislative requirements, Comcast and Verizon are causing substantial and irreparable harm.”</p>
<p>The MSCA wants the court to “enjoin Comcast and Verizon from advertising, selling, contracting for, installing, testing, maintaining, repairing and monitoring” security and fire alarm systems in the state.</p> </div>
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<span property="dc:title" content="Massachusetts installers battle Comcast, Verizon in court" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Wed, 29 Aug 2012 18:57:26 +0000Tess Nacelewicz15629 at http://www.securitysystemsnews.comhttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/massachusetts-installers-battle-comcast-verizon-court#comments